Artisan Works Embroidery Historic Costuming Sewing

Green Viking Hood

Green linen viking hood, by Sidney Eileen; It is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening, feather stitch for decorative reenforcement of the seams, and Oseberg rings for decoration on the hem.
Green linen viking hood

The finished green viking hood is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening, feather stitch for decorative reenforcement of the seams, and Oseberg rings for decoration on the hem.

The piecing of the hood is based on the Skjold Harbor hood find, but is adapted for linen and for the style of decoration I chose to use.  As is typical for reenactment, this one is made from two square gores sewn into two long rectangles.  The original was made from three squares of fabric, so the fabric was solid right below the hood opening.  I wanted to be able to fold back the seam allowances for decorative finishing (see below), so it made sense to have a seam there instead.

Green Viking Hood - Gore Detail, by Sidney Eileen. The finished viking hood. It is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening, and feather stitch for decorative reenforcement of the seams.
Green Viking Hood – Gore Detail. This photo shows the inside and outside stitch detail at the tops of the gores.

The hood was assembled with running stitch first, using linen thread pulled from the selvage of the fabric.  Machine-woven fabric typically has much higher quality threads in the selvage so it can feed properly through the machines as it is woven, threads that are very well suited to hand sewing, and already color matched to the body fabric.

I then folded the seam allowances to the outside of the garment and finished them using a tiny herringbone stitch in Londonderry linen thread size 30/3 (medium diameter).

Green Viking Hood - Opening Detail, by Sidney Eileen. The finished viking hood. It is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, and running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening. This photo shows the inside and outside stitch detail along the front edge of the hood opening.
Green Viking Hood – Opening Detail. This photo shows the inside and outside stitch detail along the front edge of the hood opening.

Along the hood opening I finished the edge with a decorative running stitch using the same color of 30/3 thread I also used for feather stitch along the seams.  The feather stitch provided a decorative reinforcement for the seams to prevent stitches from popping.

Green Viking Hood - Hem Detail, by Sidney Eileen. This photo shows the inside and outside of the hem at one of the seams, detailing the the embroidery on both the inside and outside of the garment.
Green Viking Hood – Hem Detail. This photo shows the inside and outside of the hem at one of the seams, detailing the the embroidery on both the inside and outside of the garment.

The bottom hem of the hood is turned to the inside and finished in a quick tiny herrinbone stitch again using thread pulled from the selvage of the fabric.  To cover those stitches, I decoratively embroidered the bottom hem with Oseberg rings.  This embroidery is based on a small piece of wool applique embroidery found in the Oseberg ship burial, and, according to Anne Stine Ingstad in The Textiles in the Oseberg Ship, “This type of small embroidery is known from the graves in Birka, and there too it is placed along the edges of seams and applications.”  If you go check out her article, the section on the ring embroidery is close to the bottom.

The inspiration embroidery is a wool core with wool thread wrapped around it and couching it to the fabric.  For my version I am using linen thread, size 18/3 (large) for the core, and 30/3 (medium) for the wrap.

Green Viking Hood - Hem Corner Detail, by Sidney Eileen; This photo shows the inside and outside of the corner of the hem, detailing the couched stitching and how I navigated the ring embroidery around the corners.
Green Viking Hood – Hem Corner Detail. This photo shows the inside and outside of the corner of the hem, detailing the couched stitching and how I navigated the ring embroidery around the corners.

And for purposes of sharing on social media, here are a couple collage photos suitable for different platforms.

Green linen viking hood, by Sidney Eileen; It is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening, feather stitch for decorative reenforcement of the seams, and Oseberg rings for decoration on the hem.
Green linen viking hood
Green linen viking hood, by Sidney Eileen; It is linen, entirely hand sewn and embroidered with linen thread. Stitches used are herringbone stitch to finish the seam allowances and bottom hem, running stitch for assembly and accent around the hood opening, feather stitch for decorative reenforcement of the seams, and Oseberg rings for decoration on the hem.
Green linen viking hood

Project: Green Viking Hood